1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of accumulator devices and relates to a method for making the same and to the resulting article.
2. The Prior Art
The present invention is directed to a hydraulic accumulator device of the type used in energy storage or pulsation dampening applications.
It is conventional in devices of the type described to form the pressure vessel of a shell or body component having an open mouth portion and a closed end carrying an oil port. The device includes a bladder assembly. The bladder assembly may be mounted within the vessel by connection of a sleeve or collar to the inner walls of the vessel, the lower ends of the sleeve or collar being secured to a thickened rim formed on the bladder.
Various modes or methods of assembly have been proposed, such modes or methods being disclosed, by way of example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,397,719, 3,500,866, 3,654,964, 4,084,621 and also in pending U.S. applications Ser. Nos. 250,833 and 94,041, by the inventor hereof.
While resistance welding is a known procedure effectively employed to secure together abutting metallic members along a weld line, which also defines a seal, the use of resistance welding in the fabrication of hydraulic accumulators, and particularly accumulators intended to operate under high pressures, has heretofore been discouraged by the fact that resistance welds may efficiently be effected only between relatively thin metallic sections. Heretofore if the sectional thickness of the pressure vessel surrounding the bladder support skirt has been sufficiently thin to permit a resistance weld to be effected, the pressure handling capacities of the accumulator, due to the presence of such thin sections, have been reduced.